Article of manufacture.



JOHN B. HALL, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

ARTICLE OF MANUFACTURE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 17, 1916.

No Drawing. Original application filed October 24, 1912, Serial No. 727,499. Divided and this application filed December 14, 1912. Serial No. 736,725.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN 13., IIALL, a citi Zen of the United States, residing in the city and county of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Article of Manufacture, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention consists in its broad and generic scope of a new article of manufacture comprising artificially matured cotton, the fiber of which is of greater tensile strength than the fiber of cotton naturally matured and which also contains a'greater percentage of cellulose than is present in cotton naturally matured.

In a copending application filed by me on the Qakth day of October, 1912, Serial #727,499, for n improvement in process for maturing immature and frost bitten cotton bolls, and of which this is a division, I have described and broadly claimed a novel process for artificially maturing green, immature, unopen or frost bitten cotton bolls, without having the cotton injured by climatic conditions which occurs when cotton is naturally matured.

Any suitable steps may be employed to effect my novel product.

In order to obtain my product I can utilize frost bitten or immature cotton bolls which under present conditions are allowed to dry upon the stalks or fall to the ground and afford a place of lodgment for the boll weevil and its larva. I also recover the seeds of the immature cotton bolls which have heretofore gone to waste and which according to chemical tests are as well adapted for cotton seed oil as the seed of bolls naturally matured except that there is a slightly less production of oil to the bushel.

I have found that the fibers of cotton artificially matured from the green, slightly immatured, or frost bitten bolls are Very much stronger and of a better quality than the fibers of cotton naturally matured since the cellulose is retained in the fiber, thereby increasing the quality and value of the cotton. When cotton is naturally matured, it is ordinarily alternately exposed to rains or dew at night and in the day time to the heat of the sun and thus becomes alternately wet and dry which tends to destroy the cellulose of the fiber which is retained in the latter by my method. One is thus enabled to obtain a fiber of a greater tensile strength than the tensile strength of cotton fiber naturally matured.

Since cotton when artificially matured in accordance with my present invention is not subjected to climatic conditions, it does not become stained or soiled and does not gather dirt, dust or foreign material as the bolls are substantially closed when picked. It is well known that when cotton matures naturally in the fields it becomes stained, soiled and gathers dirt, dust and foreign material which is difficult and expensive to eliminate in the treatments to which the cotton fiber is subjected.

The cotton bolls form a valuable by-prodnot which can be used for many different purposes. In accordance with my present invention, I am enabled to reclaim much of the cotton which has heretofore gone to waste as well as the cotton seeds and bolls.

In the broad aspects of my invention I am, so far as I am aware, the first in the art to produce the novel product herein disclosed. I therefore do not desire to be limited to any special process or mechanism for producing this product since so far as I am aware I am the first to obtain this product by any process or any means.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. As an improved article of manufacture, artificially matured cotton having its fiber of greater tensile strength than the fiber of cotton naturally matured.

2. As an improved article of manufacture,

artificially matured cotton having its fibers containing a greater percentage'of cellulose than is present 1n cotton naturally matured.

JOHN B. HALL.

WVitnesses I E. HAYWARD FAIRBANKS, C. D. MCVAY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

